The Balance of Power

Characters meet on the road to phandalin, where they come across a broken wagon and are attacked by goblins. Following a trail to a cave, they investigate, eradicate the goblins and the bugbear leader, and rescue Sildar Hallwinter. Arriving at Phandalin, they scout the city to find that there is a band of ruffians terrorizing the town. They eventually investigate below the ruined manor to find it is the base of the ruffians. They destroy Glass Staff, who it turns out was the missing person Sildar was sent to find. They also find a prisoner (Seeth) in the basement. The characters look near Wyvern Tor, where a group of orcs has been scouted. They meet an assassin outside (Deeloy) and attack the inhabitants. Another assassin (Deeloy's gf) has been leading the orcs and he is forced to kill her, making him very sad. The assassin hits Bruce in the hand with a poison dagger and Seeth lops off his arm to save his life. Later, Deeloy cries in some bushes and Bruce decides he's done with this bullshit. Padma Linevere arrives with Tyrone. Aileigh arrives.

Characters encountered Haman Kost, a necromancer who was hanging around Old Owl Well with a large cohort of zombies. After some discussion, they left him in peace, satisfied that he wasn’t up to anything particularly nefarious. After this, Riswinn decided she had had enough of the party’s lagging and left to go free her cousin by herself. Soon after, the party were met by a half-elven fighter of the Lord’s Alliance (Padma Linevere), who delivered a letter from Rigar, which invited the party to see him in Waterdeep after they had dealt with the Black Spider. Additionally, Padma had introduced Tyrone, a human monk to the party. The party encountered the banshee near Conyberry, where they successfully completed Sister Garael’s quest. On the way out of the forest, they were attacked by an Ogre, who was quickly dispatched and finished by a flaming kick from Tyrone. The party made their way back to Phandalin, where they wrapped up a number of quests and Padma made her leave back to Waterdeep. They plan to leave for Thundertree soon.

The party entered Thundertree, where they initially fought some zombies in a decrepit tavern. Upon making this noise, they were beaconed by a druid (Reidoth, human) to follow him to his house on the south end of the town. There they met his guest (Amafrey, a half-elven dragon hunter ranger) and he explained the situation to them. There is a green dragon in residence in the tower in town and he wants the party to run it off. He offers to lead them to Wave Echo Cave if they do. After a tangle with some spiders, they approach the tower, where the dragon greets them and invites them inside. After some coaxing, all but Amafrey acquiesce and enter. Upon entering, he speaks about his sister who has spies all around while moving around the tower animatedly. In reality, he was positioning himself most advantageously in order to hit all members with his poison breath weapon, which he did without warning. Failing their saving throws, both Aileigh and Deeloy were dropped to 0HP. Seeth and Tyrone were in bad shape, and did minor damage to the dragon. The dragon dropped Tyrone on his first turn of combat, despite poor initiative. Amafrey, meanwhile, was doing massive damage through the window. Luckily, Seeth fed Aileigh a healing potion, which revived her in time for her turn to heal Deeloy. Seeing that the battle had turned, Venomfang picked up Tyrone and began to fly away, but dropped him before he could clear the tower. At this point, he has flown toward the northeast, into the Neverwinter Wood, and is out of sight.

After being nearly exterminated by the green dragon, the party immediately found themselves confronted by members of the dragon cult, furious at their attack. Making quick work of the cultists, the party explored some more of Thundertree, pillaging as they went. The party then confronted Reidoth about possible collusion with the dragon, to which he questioned why they believed a green dragon in the first place. Placated, the party slept and left in the morning for Cragmaw Castle with Reidoth. Amafrey left in search of the dragon. The party entered the Neverwinter wood, avoiding many fearsome creatures with Reidoth’s help. They did run into two dryads that took issue with Seeth’s axe, but made quick work of them. Upon approaching the castle, the party rested and prepared for their assault.

Deeloy searched for an entrance to the castle and found a side door. Picking the iron gate, the party made its way into the castle and were noticed by a large group of goblins in the dining hall. Casting burning hands and setting the furniture on fire, Aileigh killed a number of goblins. Deeloy tried to vault over the table, but failed miserably and landing prone on the burning table. Meanwhile, Seeth double crit failed on casting a ranged fire spell and managed to cast fireball on himself, doing massive damage to everyone in the room. The party killed some other goblins, then made their way further into the castle. There, they found petrified goblins and some pissed, and very alive, hobgoblins. Searching in further, they came across a corpse and were noticed by King Grol himself and his direwolf Snarl. After a tough battle, they found that the corpse was Riswinn, who had foolishly tried to rescue her cousin Gundren Rockseeker. They found evidence that Gundren had been brought to the Black Spider. After looting the king’s room, the party became interested in a locked door. Upon opening it, Seeth ran in and came face-to-face with a Basilisk. His constitution wasn’t up to the task and he became stone. By not looking at the creature, the rest of the party were able to destroy it. With Reidoth’s help, they attempted to pull out the creatures stomach to undo the petrification, but their first attempt failed when they tested it on Seeth’s foot and the foot began to slough away. The second attempt was successful, but painful, considering the powerful acid at work. Seeth’s foot also appears to be permanently maimed, about which he is understandably upset. After this tough experience, the party decided to leave the castle.

Camping some distance from the castle, the party awoke to a green dragon head poking out from the far side of the clearing. It turns out that Venomfang had been following them; he very courteously thanked them for removing the basilisk and most of the denizens of such an excellent lair as the castle. Annoyed, the party made it’s way out of the forest and back toward Phandalin. Coming up on the city, they found it under attack by goblins and bugbears. After a fight to save the town, the players were thanked by the denizens of the town and Deeloy even did some flirting with Sister Garael. Since the inn had burned to the ground, they spent the night in Daran Edermath’s barn. In a surprise turn of events, Sister Garael woke Deeloy up for some… activities. Freshly ready for more adventure in the morning, they set off for Wave Echo Cave. Entering a craggy section of the country, they eventually came upon a crevasse that needed to be passed, which was passes successfully by everyone but Reidoth, who lost hold of the rope and plummeted to his death. Retrieving his body from the bottom, the party said some words for the druid and buried him. Moving further toward the cave, they entered a gorge with sheer walls, where they encountered an animated suit of armor. Fighting tenaciously against the surprisingly difficult opponent, they eventually prevailed and Seeth placed the armor aside for future use. Finding the entrance to the cave, they made camp nearby to attack in the morning.

Finally entering Wave Echo Cave, they found the body of a dwarf, months dead, in the entrance cavern. Echoes of rushing water reverberated through the dark passages, lending an eerie atmosphere. They descended to the main level of the cave and quickly found it to be labyrinthine. Soon they came upon an intersection with the bones of many humanoids: humans, dwarves, and orcs; evidence of the battle that ended the industry of the cave. They entered another room where several skeletons animated and tried to attack, but Deeloy and Tyrone rolled through the room like a violent wave. Further on in the passageway, the party was surprised by an attack of cave eels. They were mostly an annoyance to all but Seeth, who had his glass staff stolen and went into a narrow hole face first to retrieve it. After some finagling, he was able to retrieve it, but was left angry and frustrated. The next room was filled with large mushrooms glowing a deep green. Feeling sure of their safety, Deeloy entered and was quickly hit in the face with a cloud of spores. Wary of further investigation of the room, the party sought a different route. On that other path, they came across a vary large and dark banquet hall, which after some scouting, was shown to contain a number of ghouls.

The party was able to sneak past the ghouls in the far room. Deeloy scouted ahead and found a room containing a smelting furnace, several zombified dwarves, and a small floating skull, glowing with a green flame. The skull noticed Deeloy and warned him in a high-pitched voice to leave the room at once. Taking the hint, Deeloy high-tailed it out of the room. In the previous room, the party set up a trap for the ghouls on the other side of the room. As they drew the ghouls’ attention with a fire arrow, the party attacked at a distance and dropped several of the enemies, causing some to stop and feast on their comrades. Eventually, a couple of the ghouls reached the stairs, where they were engulfed by flame from Seeth’s hand and the oil-soaked stairs. Backtracking and moving into an labyrinthine section of the cave, they were stalked by a large yellow jelly, which they effectively kited while Aileigh spammed Sacred Flame until it fried into oblivion. They moved into a larger cavern with an underground lake that gave off a creepy and watchful vibe. One of the party noticed a glint of metal under the water in the center of the lake, which upon closer inspection appeared to be a half-buried chest. With his totally balanced monk powers, Tyrone turned the local water into ice and split it, after which Deeloy ran in to grab the contents of the now ripped-open chest. What he did not expect was for a Water Weird to reach over the ice and grapple him. Narrowly escaping the grasp, Deeloy grabbed the oilcloth bundle in the chest and ran for the shore. Thinking he was safe, he was once again pummeled and grabbed by the Weird and dragged toward the water. The group managed to grab him and run up some stairs, but were immediately surprised when bugbears burst from an adjacent room. Caught on two sides, the group fought mightily, especially helped by Aileigh’s ability to channel the power of her god to attack the goblinoids approaching the door. Finishing the foes off and moving further into the dungeon, the group came across three more bugbears and a drow in a cavern to one side and a large temple door to another side. Seeing the party, the drow fled further into the cavern

Woke up to find new powers, gathered a cart and horses in Phandalin, started on high road south, encountered a monstrous Bruce and killed him

Encountered Eilonna Silverkin, who gave a region map, fought manticores who were attacking a gnomish merchant, found a burning farm and rescued residents from orcs. Headed to Dellmon ranch to help local farmers against orc incursions.

Next Two Sessions: successfully repelled a large orc attack against the Dellmon Ranch

The company left Dellmon ranch for Red Larch under escort of a contingent of Elves from the deep wood. They arrived and checked into the Swinging Sword Inn, after which they went to the inn and heard about more strange events. During the night, Deeloy awakes to a ghost haunting him in his hotel room.

18 Kythorne

After unsuccessfully ignoring the ghost, who refers to him as “____” and is alternatively pissed/into him. After screaming outside, the hotel is roused and the innkeeper tells them that this ghost has been seen before, but not in years, and appears to be because Deeloy is a woodelf. The ghost becons them toward the old quarry, where she attacks the party and temporarily possesses Seeth, but it eventually defeated. The next day, the party does some shopping and Aileigh talks to Old Gretchen, who used to be friends with Elka the ghost. The ghost turned out to have fallen in love with a woodelf, and when he left her, she drowned herself in the lake. Old Gretchen was also apparently still in contact with the ghost, and the party leaves the old woman in hope of seeing her friend that day.

The group makes their way through the Mere of Dead Men without much event, besides a three-way battle with highwaymen and a troll.

The group crossed the Impossible Path, seeing the smoking sea and the ocean far below on either side. Halfway across, they were attacked by a wyvern. One horse was lost, and they seemed doomed, but were saved by a large silver dragon. Landing, the dragon polymorphed back into the old woman they saw before, asking them some more questions about what they were doing and who they were before leaving suddenly.

The party stopped at the town of Misty Cove, the whole area of which is covered by a thin fog limiting visibility. They get some weird vibes, but meet a nice Halfling family at the inn. Late at night, they hear a trememdous bellowing sound, but go back to sleep. In the morning, they find that the Halfling family has disappeared. They track the cart to a discarded pile of such carts, and then see townfolk staring into the sea. After investigating a lighthouse, they are attacked by the attendant, who they incapacitate. A spyglass in the top magically penetrates fog, and they see an island offshore. They make their way to the island over some bullshit monk ice bridge, avoiding the sea serpents in the water. After a couple puzzles, they make their way into the cave. Hearing the booming sound and screaming, they see lots of fish people and humans taking part in an apparent ritual. They then meet a merfolk Aenon, who is scouting the cave for a Kuo Toa infestation. He leads them though underwater caves to other chambers where they defeat the fish people and their leader. Entering the main temple, they see a tremendous tunnel to the outside and a sacrifice altar with blood spatter. They enter the human section of the temple, but the residents hear clear the room before they find them. They do, however, confront the jailor and free Cori, the only remaining member of the Halfling family. They find the human cult members in the sacrifice room and fight them from both sides, seeing the battle turn, the leader bangs the gong and summons the Shipbreaker Sea Serpent, who shows up and promptly eats the cult leader. Seeth is nearly killed by a water elemental, but they party manages to escape. They explore the remaining cave, where a very ugly pregnant woman is relaxing. They find her very unsettling and suspicious, so after casting dispel magic, the illusion falls away to show a horrible sea hag. They dispatch her quickly, then hear a sound in her belly. Performing an emergency cesarean section, Deloy saves the young baby Harmut, who was incubating to become another hag. The party leaves the cave, only to find the shipbreaker destroying the town. They leave rather quickly.

Going down the high road, after two days they find a section of land that appears to be transported directly from the desert. After investigating, they are attacked by a giant scorpion.

Next day (27th Kythorn) they find a group of refugees fleeing in the face of an apparent horde coming out of the waste.

The following day as they approach Holbeck, they are met by Padma Linevere and Zangold Gladdenstone, who tell them waterdeep is under siege. They approach Holbeck to find that Fire Giants have destroyed the Veinway Rail System. Zangold then leads them several miles away to a section of obscure woods. In an unremarkable rock face, he knocks peculiarly, a squeaking is heard and he beckons the party follow him as he walks directly into the rock face. The party enters to find that they have been portalled to Skullport.

A Cause for Reflection

We can all Edit it/ keep track of things

I'm not sure if there's a better way to do this, but I made it in Powerpoint. You can click on the month, and it brings you to the calendar for that month. THen you click on the day to go to the journal/ log slides. Right now, I've only done Kythorn, cause it's the only month we've been in so far. But you click on the day, and it brings you to a slide for that Day. You can also click through the slides regularly to look at every month/ day. Journal slides start on the 1st of Kythorn.

Since Seeth hasn't written his entry this week

Well thank goodness for Chaz.

I was the first to get back from Duke Wellington's. Tyrone was just kinda hanging out at the bar in Gondolan's. I sat down, and let him know all the "fun" he missed on our little jaunt out to Duke Wellington's with that bard. Here I thought I was meeting another nice half-elf but noooooo he went and just poofed away, leaving us alone. Funnily enough, KC and Seeth got back at the same time. I'm not sure how Seeth felt about that, but he went right up to bed. He was super done with the night's shenanigans by the time he got back.

Kris, Tyrone, and myself waited up for another 45 minutes or so for Deeloy to get back, but he was just like nowhere to be found. Luckily, Tyrone was willing to take Chaz out to go find him, and they returned not long after that. Finally, bedtime!

We woke up and decided to do a bit of exploring around the town. KC, myself, Tyrone, and Deeloy went to a leather-worker's shop. Deeloy bought some new armor (I think he must feel uncomfortable wearing the stolen set around haha). Tyrone chatted up a homeless man, and Seeth ran off on some undisclosed errand of his own. He came back a bit later though, with the name of a magic shop he wanted to go visit. I'm not sure why he was so eager. I thought he very much HATED all things magic, but maybe he's warming up a bit.

Ok, the shop was pretty neat though. It' was this place called Eitik's Emporium. We bought a few potions, and some assorted other things. We ended up trading in a lot of our less-used gear and items, but we got a SUPERCOOL sword that does extra damage to giants (probably good considering the current siege predicament), and a neat javelin that works as a lightning bolt once a day.

Well the shopping was fun, but once we were done with the magic shop, we decided to check out a tip Tyrone had gotten from the hobo earlier. Apparently there have been some suspicious people seen carrying suspicious-looking boxes and crates around the warehouse district lately. So we headed that way across town, only to arrive right as there was a giant explosion and a fire. Turns out the explosion was on part of the inner wall of the city. To Seeth and myself, it looked like there were runes in the rubble from the wall. I'm guessing it was one of the wards on the city walls, which is very not good if they're being targeted. We tried to offer to help, but the city guards weren't having it and wouldn't let us past.

Instead, we decided to go take a peek at Duke Wellington's warehouse. KC remembered from the communications in his desk that he had property in this area, and that some of his less legal goods had recently been stolen; things like guns and explosives (surprise, surprise…). So we wandered around till we found te warehouse, noticing the guards stationed all around it. Seeth suggested we light something on fire to distract them…. We decided instead that KC would use the magic disguise hat to impersonate a city guard to get access to the warehouse. The rest of us retreated around the corner to wait. It took a while, but KC came back with a… student ID?

Then someone took a shot at Deeloy…. At that point we called it quits and went back to Gondolan's.

Earlier yesterday Deeloy received a letter detailing how a woman wanted to kill him. And, by extension, us. Therefore, we set up a watch overnight to keep from being taken unawares by this assassin. She or one of her companions (though I find it hard to believe she works well with others, she sounds like an awfully toxic individual) tacked skinned and gutted rabbit corpses on the windows of each member of the party's rooms. We observed this upon leaving the inn at an ungodly hour of around 2AM.

We made our way to the North Gate. Upon arriving, we talked with a guard and inquired about anyone moving boxes suspiciously. They said there was nothing of the kind, but were suspicious of us, and told us to report anything to the watch. We promptly thanked him and left.

Following this, our party made its way to the docks to observe the sea serpent infestation. On our attempts to observe these creatures, we were accosted by a Lieutenant of the guard named Davin Dinkleberg. I told him of my connection with the city, and he trusted us enough to show us a better look of the infestation, as well as a look at the besieging orcish army. I am surprised who could have brought this group together… I wonder… I will need to visit the command camp somehow.

We returned to the Inn, rested up a little (for about an hour) until normal daily operations in the city resumed. We visited the Academy of Occupational Arts, an idea suggested by the student ID for Aesir Morgan I had discovered in Duke Wellington's warehouse. In this school, we met the esteemed gnome Nesmir Fingerbottom. Many jests were made. We asked him about the missing Aesir Morgan, and were told that he was part of a group of students professor Fingerbottom led called the Defese of Real Kin. They were concerned with advocating for racial divides. Borden Blackwater joined 6 months ago, and led students in frightening and disturbing lines of thought. 1 month ago he and all the students in the group disappeared from the school. We were told that he'd recently seen one of the students from the group- Hemylos – a week ago. They looked terrible, and the only thing they had said was "I'm not sure what to do, I'm on Row Street". Or at least that's all I remember.

I think we should investigate Row Street, or Borden Blackwater. This may have something to do with Unchosen. And it may help me find out what's behind the siege on Waterdeep…

Aileigh, 1st of Flamerule

Well today was yet another very eventful day. We were in Gondolan's as usual this morning, then Seeth ran off suddenly, denying any accompaniment and mentioning to contact the black staff wizard's tower if he didn't come back…. strange. Well instead of sitting around, Deeloy decided to try and track down the assassin that's after him, starting with the nearby buildings. KC and I figured it was certainly in his clumsy interest that we accompany him. As he suspected, the assassin was in deed watching our group from the rooftop of a nearby building. We ran up the steps of the building hoping to catch her on the roof.

She was no longer there by the time we got to where Deeloy had spotter her, but we did find her bag. Clearly she left in a hurry, leaving behind some weapons and gold. Deeloy tried to check the area for traps, but instead just opened an exploding book in his own face. I went to attempt to heal him, only to learn that the assassin was now on the roof of Gondolans with a crossbow. That she shot me with. It was poisoned. Ouch.

Being very unhappy, I used my scroll of lightning bolt and my spiritual weapon on her, hoping to shock and smash her into submission. It may have been a bad idea, but I'd had more than enough of her shit. and the poor rabbits. And the ruined mattress. Enough was enough. She fired back, but missed. KC was able to heal Deeloy from the unfortunate explosion, and he threw a dagger at the other assassin. By then, I was able to hit her with Guiding bolt and my spiritual weapon again, after which she looked really rough and decided to cut her losses.

She disappeared over the side of the rooftop, but KC promptly tossed Deeloy across the alleyway to pursue her. Amazingly, Deeloy landed gracefully (something you'd assume was inherent in wood elves… but certainly not the case when it came to good ol' Deeloy) and came out of the landing running. He threw a dagger over the side of the roof where the assassin disappeared, then disappeared himself.

By the time KC and I got back to the front of Gondolans, Yosef was standing outside the doors, menacingly waving a broken bottle towards eyebrow-less Deeloy, arguing about whether or not he was in cahoots with this other rogue/ assassin. Luckily, we were able to calm Yosef down and rejoin Tyrone for a breather. Shortly after we sat down at a table, Seeth returned. He bought a drink from Yosef, spoke to the barkeep for a minute, then disappeared out back without so much as a glance our way. He was not looking good- skinnier and exhausted, both of which are strange for him.

Obviously we followed him outside, only to find him mindlessly and ridiculously shooting off scorching rays at the alley wall. He did not know that spell prior to his little side- adventure, and he looks just slightly different now… aaaand then he passed out before we could talk to him really. Luckily KC caught him and brought him inside to rest a bit.

We all took a bit, and then woke Seeth up. I dragged everyone to the temple of Pelor. I'd been meaning to go and ask some questions of the clerics there concerning my now "glowing" complexion and the visions I've experienced. This was my first time in such a large city, so I figured they had to have at least some information… Also my traveling companions could certainly use the healing.

Ugh it was massive and imposing… of course. But the glass work in the windows was very nice. The head priest, Lightbringer Garanth Sunshield spotted me immediately and ushered our group off to a side room. He was a little stuffy. And prejudiced. Just what i dislike about so many of these temple priests. But the boys were also quite rude. I think KC tried to keep them in line? but she also seemed uncomfortable. I don't blame her. I was too, but i'm just used to it by now. He was mostly unhelpful when it came to getting answers about the visions and recent development with the glowing. but he did take the group to the healing ward to get patched up after the mornings' activities. We took our leave shortly after, but not without some puzzling advice. He said something along the lines of "Remember that when you look at the sun you're looking at Elysium's light" Interestingly enough, there was not quite as much Pelor in that little tidbit as I was expecting. And why would he say that about Elysium? Is the sun a portal that lets Elysium's light through to this plane? Would that then make Pelor the guardian of this gate rather than the bringer of sunlight? SO many questions to look into.

Still gotta figure out what happened to Seeth… He didn't look much better after the temple visit, adn also asked for the pink & gold diadem I'd had for the majority of our adventure…. Also Tyrone has been forgoing us for the drink quite a bit of late… Should probably talk to him about that.

Aileigh- 2nd of Flamerule

So today was interesting… To start with, we all had our new cloaks which was nice. They're swooshy. But onto more important things, We woke up and decided to go check out KC's tip on Borden Blackwater. Well most of us CoughTyroneCough

We followed the directions to a warehouse. There was one poor sod standing out front, staring at the door mumbling "Gotta watch the door" over and over to himself. Deeloy hopped up onto the roof of the next building, and I did a wide loop around the block. There was a back door to the warehouse, but no additional guards. When I got back, Seeth decided to try and talk to the empty husk of that poor kid that was now "standing watch". He freaked out and started to open the door. Seeth prevented that, and KC and Seeth dragged the guy into the alley and gagged him and tied him up.

Seeing as things were looking pretty suspicious, we decided to try and enter from both ends of the warehouse, but the back dor was locked. Instead, as we entered the front door, we triggered a sonic bomb rune. Which then interrupted some weird ceremony/ ritual that was going on in the back of the room. The supposed leader of this ragtag group tried to cast some crazy spell on our group, but managed to miss. Seeth and I were able to take care of him with a combination of silence spells and Seeth's new (still not normal for him to be casting) Scorching Ray.

But before we took care of that particular problem, the leader ordered the other "minions" to attack us. They came at us with loose boards. We made quick work of them, leaving them unconscious in the warehouse.

I did have to paralyze two though. They had tried to escape after their leader died with packs full of what we soon discovered was loads of explosives. Upon further searching of the warehouse, we found some gold (100 GP) a strange book that Neither Seeth nor I could read, and a letter addressing Borden Blackwater, whom we surmised was the leader figure.

The Letter spoke of a cave just outside the city walls. It had instructions on installing a device and when the cave would be safe to pass through due to the inhabitants being "immobile". However, the date given in the letter for the instructions to be carried out was for 8 days ago, the 24th of Kythorn. I don't believe we were even in Waterdeep at that time… It was signed just "~E". We think we may be able to reach the cave, but the mention of "cave inhabitants" worries me.

We took the book, the gold, the letter, and one of the backpacks with us to Gondolan's after tying up all of the unconscious folks and locking them inside the warehouse. We then contacted Padma, who surprisingly seemed impressed with the events at the warehouse, and told us the Lord's Alliance would take care of tidying everything up. She also mentioned checking in more often.

After dinner, Seeth hunkered down in a corner and studied the book for a while, while Deeloy went up to the roof. However, after a bit, Seeth started pacing the room, muttering to himself, and occasionally covering his ears… weird. I hope he doesn't end up like those poor kids in the warehouse….